It was a big spring for Sebastian Elizalde. It started with an invite to spring training as a non-roster invitee. He then joined Team Mexico in the World Baseball Classic.
He was sent to minor league camp late in March and assigned to the Louisville Bats. Louisville has played seven games on the season and Sebastian Elizalde has had a hit in all seven. In six of those games he has played he’s racked up multiple hits.
On Wednesday night the 25-year-old racked up his second consecutive three hit game. He’s now 15 for 31 on the season (.484) with a double, two triples and a home run. He’s hitting .484/.485/.742 on the season with a walk and four strikeouts.
While it’s still too early in the season to think he’s on the verge of a call up due to his performance, he got an extended look with the Reds after returning from the World Baseball Classic. He’s not going to hit .484 on the season, but if he continues to play well then he could certainly get a look later in the season if the Reds need a corner position player to call up.
Other news and notes
Seth Mejias-Brean was “called up” from the Billings roster on Wednesday to join the Bats. He was sent down to make room for Tyler Goeddel the other day when he cleared waivers and was outrighted to Triple-A. He’s taking the roster spot of Barrett Astin, who re-joined the Cincinnati Reds when the team sent Rookie Davis to the 10-day disabled list.
The Reds signed outfielder Cedric Hunter to a minor league deal last week. He’s spent small parts of two seasons in the Major Leagues. In 2011 he played in six games with the Padres and in 2016 he saw action in 13 games with the Phillies. In total he’s had 41 total plate appearances in the Major Leagues. The now 29-year-old has been solid, but unspectacular over the last two seasons in Triple-A. He’s hit .283/.331/.420 with Gwinnett and .294/.324/.433 with Lehigh Valley the last two seasons. He’s pretty much limited to the corner outfield spots at this point in his career. Hunter was suspended for 50-games for testing positive for amphetamines. We won’t see him playing anytime soon because of that.
Amir Garrett and Robert Stephenson pitched well on Wednesday
For Amir Garrett, it was another notch in the belt. The left hander cruised through six innings before the Pirates got to him with a 2-run homer in the 7th inning. Holding an 8-0 lead heading into the inning, the damage meant very little. Garrett threw 96 pitches on the night in 6.2 innings, walking no one and striking out five batters. Through his first two starts he’s posted a 1.42 ERA in 12.2 innings. He has walked jsut two batters and has nine strikeouts with just seven hits allowed. He’s been incredibly pitch efficient in his two starts, averaging less than 14 pitches per inning.
The fastball velocity was a little lower than expected again on Wednesday for Amir Garrett. He averaged just 91.9 MPH on the night, though he did note in the pre-game interview that it’s a calculated move. The control has been outstanding and the trade off has been worth it thus far. Garrett induced 10 swinging strikes in his start. One came on his fastball, five more came on the change up and four came on the breaking ball.
After a very rough first outing, Robert Stephenson rebounded in a big way. He threw the final two innings for the Reds in their win over the Pirates. Stephenson walked a batter and allowed two hits in 2.0 innings with four strikeouts and no earned runs. He threw 29 pitches and 19 of them were for strikes. The fastball reached 98 MPH and averaged 95.8 on the night. His splitter generated six swings and misses on only eight splitters thrown.The righty also got a swing and miss on a curveball.